Beginning
Alphabetics
Tests & Tools
(~BATT~)
Developed by:
Marn Frank, ATLAS Literacy & STAR Coordinator
Kristin Perry, Hmong American Partnership ESL Teacher
August 2015
To view, download, print, and share for FREE, go to:
http://atlasabe.org/resources/ebri/ebri-alphabetics
This project was contracted and funded by Adult Basic Education Teaching and Learning
Advancement System (ATLAS). Housed at Hamline University’s School of Education, ATLAS is made
possible with a grant from the Minnesota Department of Education using federal funding, Workforce
Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220), CFDA 84.002A and Minnesota Statute 124D.22.
Marn Frank, ATLAS, ©2015
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2. Alphabet Letter Identification
b
g
s
m
h
l
w
r
d
n
i
t
p
FREE
a
k
f
u
z
j
e
v
c
o
y
x
q
Marn Frank, ATLAS, ©2015
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6A. Short Vowel Knowledge
Name: _______________________
Date: ______________
Practice:
A:
pin
pan
pen
B:
rat
rot
rut
1.
tap
tip
top
2.
tip
top
tap
3.
pot
pat
pit
4.
pat
pit
pot
5.
sop
sap
sip
6.
sip
sop
sap
7.
jab
jib
job
8.
bat
bit
but
9.
cot
cat
cut
not
nut
nit
10.
Marn Frank, ATLAS, ©2015
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9. Long Vowel Silent-e and Vowel Digraph Knowledge
Name: _______________________
Date: _______________
1. ______________
11. ______________
2. ______________
12. ______________
3. ______________
13. ______________
4. ______________
14. ______________
5. ______________
15. ______________
6. ______________
16. ______________
7. ______________
17. ______________
8. ______________
18. ______________
9. ______________
19. ______________
10. _______________
20. ______________
Marn Frank, ATLAS, ©2015
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Lesson Plan 1: Print Concepts and Phonological Awareness
This lesson plan is most appropriate for pre-literate and non-Roman alphabet ESL students, who
have little to no knowledge of an alphabetic written language. It uses synthetic phonics.
ORAL to PRINT CONNECTION

Teacher shows and says key vocabulary words from a previous unit or text.

Students say words and teacher asks: “What’s the first letter? What’s the first sound?”
REVIEW or DRILL of TAUGHT PATTERNS (5-10 minutes/day)
Visual: Teacher shows or writes taught alphabet/single consonant letters and elicits their
names and sounds from students (see Appendix, pages 44-45).
Auditory: Teacher says taught alphabet/single consonant sounds and students write the letters
in the air, on textured material or paper.
MODELING and GUIDED PRACTICE of NEW PATTERNS (10-15 minutes/day)
1. According to test results and the instructional sequence on page 28, teacher writes 3-5
new alphabet/single consonant letters on the board. One at a time, teacher says the letter
name and sound. For example: “This is letter b. Letter b says /b/.”
2. Teacher shows how to write each new alphabet/single consonant letter 3-5 times across
the board from left to right, saying: “b says /b/.” Students repeat writing each letter in the
air, on textured material or paper, or trace on flashcards (see Appendix, pages 46-47).
3. Teacher chooses a new short vowel letter and writes it 3-5 times across the board from left
to right, saying: “a says /ă/.” Students repeat writing the new letter in the air, on textured
material or paper, or trace on a flashcard (see Appendix, page 48).
4. Using alphabet strips (see Appendix, page 43), teacher says, “Show me b.” Students point
to b and teacher asks: “What sound?”
5. Using letter tiles or cut up flashcards, teacher says taught sounds and students search for
the corresponding letters. Using found tiles or flashcards, teacher models how to build a
small set of simple, 3-4 letter words.
6. Teacher models how to blend (or pronounce) each simple word.
7. Teacher demonstrates how to segment (or count) each word before students attempt to
spell with letter tiles or flashcards.
WORD to TEXT CONNECTION
8. Teacher asks students to find (underline, circle, or highlight) words with the new patterns
within a previously introduced story or worksheet. They list and read the isolated words.
Marn Frank, ATLAS, ©2015
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Lesson Plan 2: Phonological Awareness, Phonics and Word Recognition
This lesson plan is most appropriate for semi-literate ESL or ABE students, who know all alphabet
letter names and single sounds, but need to learn consonant and vowel patterns that are
more common and predictable. It also uses synthetic phonics.
ORAL to PRINT CONNECTION (ESL)
 Teacher shows and says taught vocabulary words from a previous unit or text.
 Students say each word and teacher asks: “What’s the first letter? What’s the first sound?”
EXPLANATION (ABE)
Teacher explains that learning more English letters and sounds will improve reading and
spelling of words students know, but can’t always read or spell.
REVIEW or DRILL of TAUGHT PATTERNS (5-10 minutes/day)
Visual: Teacher writes and blends taught, 3-4 letter words and students read the words.
Auditory: Teacher erases the list, dictates each word, and students spell them in the air, on
textured material or paper.
MODELING and GUIDED PRACTICE of NEW PATTERNS (10-15 minutes/day)
1. According to test results and the instructional sequence on page 28, teacher writes 1-3
consonant blend (or ending, digraph) letter-sound patterns on the board.
2. Teacher says the letters and blends the sounds. For example: “S+t says /st/at the beginning
of words. S+n says /sn/” at the beginning of words.
3. Students say the letters and blend the sounds 3-5 times.
4. Teacher says new consonant blends and students point to the flashcard spellings (see
Appendix, page 49).
5. Teacher says new consonant blends and students spell in the air, on textured material or
paper, or trace on flashcards.
6. Teacher writes 5-15 simple words using known patterns and models how to blend (or
pronounce) each one: stab, stag, stop, stub, stun, step, snag, snap, snip, snob, snug, etc.
7. Students blend each word 3-5 times and as needed, teacher provides brief definitions or
simple contexts: “Sharp knives are used to stab. A stag is a male deer. To snap means to
break.”
8. Teacher dictates the new words for spelling practice and provides immediate correction.
WORD to TEXT CONNECTION
9. Teacher asks students to find (underline, circle, or highlight) words with the new patterns
within a previously introduced story or worksheet. They list and read the isolated words.
10. If language- and level-appropriate, teacher and students write and read short sentences
using the new words (plus other sight or high frequency words – see Appendix, pages 6062).
Marn Frank, ATLAS, ©2015
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Lesson Plan 3: Phonics and Word Recognition
This lesson plan is appropriate for ABE and ESL students who need to learn consonant clusters,
vowel teams (such as digraphs, r/l controlled, less predictable diphthongs), less common
consonant blends, trigraphs, and irregular spellings. It uses analogy phonics, but synthetic
phonics is also appropriate.
EXPLANATION (ABE and ESL)
Teacher explains that learning English phonograms can improve reading and spelling of
words, reading fluency, and over time, comprehension. They will learn one phonogram
pattern at a time along with a word family that is made by adding consonants at the front.
This will build a large storage in their brains of familiar letter-sound-word patterns.
DRILL OR REVIEW of TAUGHT PATTERNS (5-10 minutes/day)
Visual: Teacher shows and reads a list of taught -aid (vowel digraph ai) words: laid, maid, paid,
raid, braid, staid. Students read the words.
Auditory: Teacher erases the list, dictates the same words for students to air write together or
spell individually on paper.
MODELING and GUIDED PRACTICE of NEW PATTERNS (10-15 minutes/day)
1. According to test results and the instructional sequence on page 28, teacher writes and
blends a new phonogram pattern on the board: ai+l=ail (also vowel digraph ai).
2. Students blend the new phonogram pattern 3-5 times.
3. Teacher writes and blends 10-15 -ail words with single consonant and blend onsets that
make a new word family: b+ail=bail, f+ail=fail, h+ail=hail, j+ail=jail, m+ail=mail, n+ail=nail,
p+ail=pail, qu+ail=quail, r+ail=rail, s+ail=sail, t+ail=tail, w+ail=wail, fl+ail=flail, fr+ail=frail, etc.
4. Students blend the new word family several times as teacher underlines –ail in each word.
5. As needed, teacher quickly defines unknown words or gives simple contexts: “A quail is a
wild bird. To wail means crying long and loud. To flail means moving your arms or legs in a
wild way. Frail means very sick or weak.”
6. Teacher dictates the new word family for spelling practice and provides immediate
correction.
7. If language- and level-appropriate, teacher guides students in blending longer –ail words
with -s/es, -ing, -ed endings, as compounds, or with common suffixes and prefixes.
Examples include: bails, bailing, bailed, bailer, hails, hailing, hailed, jails, jailing, jailed, jailer,
mailbox, mailman, railroad, railway, sailboat, sailor, etc.
8. Teacher and students write and read short sentences using the new words (plus other sight
or high frequency words – see Appendix, pages 60-62).
NOTE: Teaching Analogy Phonics (TAP) provides over 100 phonograms and word families
organized by highest frequency or increasing complexity and alphabetical order. Download
and print for FREE: http://atlasabe.org/resources/ebri/ebri-alphabetics
Marn Frank, ATLAS, ©2015
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Lesson Plan 4: Phonics and Word Recognition
This lesson plan is appropriate for some ABE and ESL students who know a number of lettersound-word patterns, but need to improve their application to unknown words. It uses analytic
phonics, which may work better as additional practice after synthetic or analogy phonics
instruction.
EXPLANATION (ABE and ESL)
Teacher compliments students on their growing letter-sound-word skills and explains that they
are ready to use what they know to figure out what they don’t know. Like scientists, they will
analyze data (letters and sounds) figure out patterns, and draw conclusions about new words.
This process may be difficult, but teacher modeling and guided practice will be provided.
MODELING and GUIDED PRACTICE of KNOWN to UNKNOWN PATTERNS
1. According to test results and the instructional sequence on page 28, teacher selects 2-3
letter-sound patterns that are similar or different (see samples in Appendix, pages 66-67).
2. Teacher makes header flashcards that include the letter-sound patterns, known words, and
sometimes sample pictures (see template in Appendix, pages 68-69).
3. Teacher shows the headers, explains the letter-sound patterns, and models how to
segment and blend the known words.
4. Teacher models how to apply the letter-sound patterns and known words to reading the
unknown words.
5. As needed, teacher quickly defines unknown words or gives simple contexts.
6. At the same time, the teacher demonstrates sorting the unknown words under the correct
headers.
7. Teacher and students read the two or three columns of sorted words.
8. Students read and sort the same unknown words alone or in pairs.
9. Teacher and students check the sort column by column, ensuring they see and hear the
same letter-sound patterns.
10. Teacher and students reflect on the sort, describe the new letter-sound patterns, and
teacher dictates some of the words for spelling practice.
11. Teacher and students write and read short sentences using the new words (plus other sight
or high frequency words – see Appendix, pages 60-62).
NOTE: Words Their Way™ is a popular, K-12 analytic phonics instructional series available for
purchase from Amazon. It is intended for students who struggle to spell one-syllable words. It
includes both picture and word sorts. There are also suggestions for English Language Learners:


Reduce the number of words
Spend extra time saying the words
and discussing meanings
Marn Frank, ATLAS, ©2015
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

Pair ELLs with native English speakers
Accept variations in pronunciation
Online Resources for FREE:

Center for the Study of Adult Literacy (CSAL) has organized an electronic library
of over 1500 texts at grade levels 3.0-7.9. All have been reviewed by the CSAL
team and are recommended for use with adult readers.
http://csal.gsu.edu/content/library

Pre-Beginning and Beginning Curriculum Units with Transition Skills by MLC “builds
CASAS competencies and systematically develops print concepts, phonological
awareness, phonics, word recognition, fluency, and comprehension.”
http://mnliteracy.org/mnliteracy.org/tools/curriculum-lesson-plans

Reading Skills for Today’s Adults by Marshall Adult Basic Education is intended “to
help adults become better readers and more informed consumers, parents,
employees, citizens and community members.” There is a wide variety of stories
at Levels 0.7-8.0.
http://www.marshalladulteducation.org/reading-skills-for-todays-adult

ReadWorks provides a wide variety of research-based units, lessons, and
authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages. A login is required to view
and print over 2,200 passages at K-12 levels, each with question sets to support
text comprehension.
http://www.readworks.org

Story by Story Online by Charles and Pam LaRue, MCED Services includes 12
audio versions of short vowel and consonant digraph stories.
http://www.mcedservices.com/phonics/phonics.htm

MN ABE You Tube Channel is a repository of visual resources for more than just
reading. Scroll to find the videos on how to each multi-sensory alphabetics and
facilitate small fluency groups.
http://youtube.com/c/mnabeprofessionaldevelopment
Marn Frank, ATLAS, ©2015
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Single Consonants
m
l
s
t
p
f
c
n
b
r
j
k
v
g
w
d
h
y
z
x
qu
Marn Frank, ATLAS, ©2015
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